We were the greatest, now we are not although I can see no other greater. What has happened is that we are becoming the same as all other nations with the United States becoming the equivalent of the other nations rather then the leader of the Free World.
Take the issue of "dissent". While we still have the right to dissent it has been watered down to the point where the People have become irrelevant. The People have opposed such measures as NAFTA, and GATT/WTO; the healthcare bill; the bail out of corporations, and banks, and now the unions, yet they were passed. The People oppose amnesty for illegals, yet it appears we will once again go down that road without any serious attempt to secure the border the recent decision to place the National Guard on the border notwithstanding. The government realizes that they have to do something, so, as a sop to the People they make a show of this which is only 1200 soldiers which is less then one per mile.
Then we have the rulings by the USSC which favor the corporation, and extend their influence, and power, over that of the People. In the Kelo decision the corproate entity was given the "right" to use the power of the government to take away your land for the "public good" rather then the "public use" as expressed in the Constitution.
Then there was the Citizen United case where Scalia, one who I usually agree with, declared:
"Despite the corporation-hating quotations the dissent has dredged up, it is far from clear that by the end of the 18th century corporations were despised. If so, how came there to be so many of them? The dissent’s statement that there were few business corporations during the eighteenth century—“only a few hundred during all of the 18th century”—is misleading. Post, at 35, n. 53. There were approximately 335 charters issued to business corporations in the United States by the end of the 18th century. 2 See 2 J. Davis,"
The Founders, especially Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, and Jackson, deeply opposed the power of the corporate world. Basically only Hamilton supported it. The Constitutions of the first 19 States deeply limited the activities of the corporation. So, for Scalia to make a comment such as above is totally disengenuous, and, simply because of the wealth that corporations contol, gave that entity a greater voice then the People. Scalia's comment that "the dissent's statement that there were few business corporations during the 18th. century", only a few hundred, is then supported by the very authority he cites which says there were 335, yet he says they were wrong.
Then there is the issue of generosity. The Government has always been very free with the Peoples money often in total disreagrd for the Peoples wishes. Why do we as a nation give aid to the countries enemies such as Hamas in Palestine, the Taliban in Afghanistan, or North Korea?
On the private level, the richest people in the country give on an average less then 1% of their income to charities. On the other hand, the poorest give 7 to 10% of their income, and when it comes to volunteer work it is most often those in the bottom 20% of the income structure that give of their time. And Conservatives who attend church give far more then the Liberal.
Anyway, that is my opinion, and unless the People rise up, and take back what has been taken from them, or suppressed, the United States will become just another country in a global society.
